Thiedish
Thiedish is a direct descendant of Old and Middle English and a sibling to English and Scots. Unlike English, it preserves most of the original lexis inherited from Old English. Comparable to Scots, Thiedish has moderate influences from Old Norse, Low German, French and Latin. Old English and Modern English both exert considerable influence upon new vocabulary. Setting The language developed as a scholarly lingua franca due to the governance of a Thiedish Linguistic College, whose mandate was to establish basic rules for grammar, pronunciation, orthography, and standardisation for the burgeoning Saxon tongues across Mediaeval Britain. The language, which in the past has had a tendency to displayed intense prescriptivism, is currently evolving into a truly modern language suitable for literary and international use. Phonology 'Alphabet' Thiedish uses the Frankish/Carolingian alphabet, a descendant of the Latin, in conjunction with some Old English letters. Combinations of letters can be used to produce single phonemes, as in English. Consonants Vowels Digraphs Phonotactics Consonant clusters are common, and phonotactic rules for Thiedish are the same as Old and Middle English. Clusters 'kn-', 'gn-', 'fn-', etc. are pronounced as they are written. Basic Grammar Typology Thiedish is a Subject Verb Object (SVO) language, and specifically, a V2 language. Gender There are three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. All common nouns are neuter, except where the sex is clearly discernable. Words such as: mann, boi, bull, draak, fader, sun ("son"), cock, kining ("king") are masculine. Feminines nouns are: wimman, wijf, læddiȝ, girl, muoder, swester, henn, quien ("queen"), etc. Many words can take either a masculine or feminine gender depending on the sex of the person or object being referred to, like: baker, larjow ("teacher"), hund ("dog"), fugel, dier ("animal"). In such cases, ðe larjow would be "the male teacher", while ða larjow would be "the female or lady teacher". Articles Articles are similar to those in other West Germanic languages. Definite Articles ("The") The neuter switch-forms ðe and ðet operate in the same way that English a'' and ''an do: when the following noun begins with a consonant, the form ðe is used ("ðe land"), otherwise ðet is the default article ("ðet æppel"). Definite articles are not declined, except in the genitive case as in ðe buok ðes manns ("the book of the man/the man's book"), and for number ða æppels ("the apples"). Indefinite Articles ("A/An") Pronouns Demonstrative Pronouns ("That/Those") Demonstrative Pronouns ("This/These") Interrogative Pronouns ("Who/What") Relative Pronouns ("That/Who/Which") Personal Pronouns Nouns Nouns fall into two classes: Strong Nouns and Weak Nouns. Strong Nouns The majority of nouns fall into the Strong category, even nouns belonging to Weak declensions in Old English. All Strong Nouns are declined alike, regardless of gender. The Strong declension is declined as follows: Weak Nouns The Weak declension is preserved only for nouns derived from Weak Adjectives, as in Charles ðe '''Greate, or ''ða '''deaden in Crijst'', and is used to refer to a specified individual with a certain quality or qualities: ðe '''boalde' ("''the bold one"). The Weak declension is declined as follows: Irregular Nouns A limited number of nouns form their plurals in an irregular or mixed way. They are declined as other Strong Nouns, appending ''-s'' to form the Genitive Singular, and ''-en'' to form the Genitive Plural (unless an ''-(e)n'' has already been added). Verbs Verbs in Thiedish are categorised into two classes: Strong and Weak. Strong Verbs Strong verbs show tense without the use of a dental affix (''-t''/''-(e)d''), have past participles which end in ''-(e)n'', and mutate the Second and Third Person singular vowel stems in the Indicative. Verb - eten ("to eat") :Present Indicative :: :Past Indicative :: :Present Perfect :: :Past Perfect :: Weak Verbs Regular Weak Verbs Irregular Weak Verbs Conjugation Verbs are conjugated for Person and Number. There are three moods: indicative, subjunctive, and imperative. There are two basic tenses: present and past; all other tenses are compound, relying heavily on auxiliary verbs, similar to other Germanic languages. Present Indiciative verb - maken ("to make") Past Indiciative (Preterit) verb - maken ("to make") Present Subjunctive verb - maken ("to make") Past Subjunctive verb - maken ("to make") Imperative verb - maken ("to make") Dictionary Numerals Example text The Lord's Prayer in Thiedish Ouser Fader, ðie art in hevens ȝehálged sij ðijn naam. Cum ðijn rijch, ȝewéarþ ðijn will, on earþ as hit is in hevens. Ouser dæȝliche bread ȝiv ous tuodǽȝ, ond forȝív ous ouser schilds as wie forȝíveþ ouser schildands. Ond lead ous nee intuo costning, ok alíes ous fram ivel. Ðonn ðijn is ðe rijch, ond ðe meaght, ond ðe wulder, foréaver. Suoþlich. 2 Chronicles 7:14 Ȝif mijn liede, ðoa hoateþ of mijn naam, willen hienen hemselvs ond beden, ond sieken mijn lier, ond cherren fram her ivelen wijsen, ðann will ik hieren fram hevens ond forȝíven her sinns ond healen her loand. Preamble to the United States Constitution Wie ðoa Liede ðer Foréanden Staten, agáng tuo scheppen an altéawer eandom, onstéllen ȝeríghthad, ȝetrímmen ieðelfriþ, ȝeréad tuo ðet ermenóandfeng, ȝefrémmen ðe þiedwelfær, ond affǽsten ða blessings of frielsdom, for ouserselvs ond ouser æfterknieress, duoþ ȝehoaden ond astéllen ðis ȝesétness for ða Foréanden Staten América. Category:Languages